Kieran Maguire issues ‘£240m’ reveal after Leeds chief Radrizzani’s claim
Leeds United are smart to follow the Leicester City model that has earned them £240million since they won the Premier League.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani’s recent admission.
As quoted by Leeds Live last Thursday (30 December), he claimed Leeds may “sell on one or two key players and buy other talents coming up like Leicester did.”
Leicester miraculously won the league title in the 2015-16 campaign and have gone on to finish 5th twice and win the FA Cup last term.
Maguire claimed that the Whites would do well to emulate the Foxes’ “money-ball” approach.
“Leicester only employed that model after winning the Premier League,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“Leicester have got a lot of things right. One of those is that they invested in data analytics. They were ahead of the curve in that respect.
“That allowed them to get the likes of Vardy and Kante and so on. After winning the league, they generated £240m in player sales but spent £460m.
“But they have certainly sold players. Leicester are a fantastic example of a club who because they have more modest resources, have been smarter.
“They believe in the power of Moneyball.
“But the challenge for Leeds is that because more clubs are investing in this, it sort of neutralises itself to a certain extent. If everybody is doing it, how do you get the edge?“
Leeds, who sit 16th in the league, beat Burnley 3-1 in arguably their biggest match of the season so far yesterday (2 January).
Leicester meanwhile are in 10th place.
In other news, Paddy Kenny delivers insight on Leeds United potentially re-signing his ex-teammate Ross Barkley.